Perhaps you remember that 1940’s Leica IIIC, shown here in a recent article. Well, I managed to avoid using it (unsuccessfully) for several days, but in the end I succumbed to my innate curiosity and had a go at it. My curiosity got the better of me, which is something that happens on a regular basis. …
Yes, the title is long, but for a good reason. This trip to Berlin was my third or fourth photo expedition with the Ricoh 500G. I’m still getting used to this lovely little camera, which I bought three months ago. This 40€ purchase was in excellent condition, apart from the light seals, which I had to replace. After shooting a few initial rolls of film, I was keen to find out which film would be best for a given subject and lighting situation. So I packed my bag for Berlin with the following mix of films: Ilford HP5, Ilford FP4, Ilford XP2 and Fomapan 400.
A couple of years ago I treated myself to a very tidy Yashicamat that was made in May 1965. I wrote about the camera here. I discovered recently that the shutter speeds had become faulty, finally succumbing to age (57 years) and making the camera unusable. Fortunately Newton Ellis & Co in Liverpool will service TLR’s. They get a full strip down and repair.
Stopping at the local Salvation Army store whenever I find myself in Kenai has become a regular tradition for me. I go there looking for the underappreciated film cameras of years gone by. Typically, I walk away empty-handed but my track record of finding very useable vintage cameras keeps me coming back. On this particular day though, I left with not one, but two 35mm camera bodies complete with lenses. They were both manual focus bodies but they each represented a different generation of cameras.
My better half was recently and suddenly admitted to hospital with a previously unsuspected medical condition. I’m glad to say that she responded to treatment and was discharged after a week with a course of medication and instructions to take it easy for a time.
So while she rested upstairs for a couple of hours in the afternoons I retreated higher up. To the loft, where for some time I have been building a model railway.
